


run.

by Catory



Series: new game (-1) [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, I feel like ass this week and im taking all of you down with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 17:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12512876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catory/pseuds/Catory
Summary: akira kurusu is going to die here, and there's nothing he can do for himself or for the blonde delinquent in here with him.he is wrong on exactly one count.





	run.

Akira can't breathe.

At least half of it is the fear. The rest of it is the metal hands holding him upright against a stone wall.

He is going to die here. They're both going to die here, Akira amends, as he looks over at the blonde punk being held up by the throat. His name— the king had said it before. Sakamoto, no first name. Akira hadn’t thought to ask, as they’d been frantically searching the cell for a way out.

Still more than he knows, though. Sakamoto doesn't even know any part of Akira's name. Nobody at Shujin knows Akira's name, and he'll die alone, away from anyone that might have cared except for one blonde delinquent who doesn't even know Akira's _name._

The king— Kamoshida was what Sakamoto had called him, right?— steps over to watch the execution. He laughs, and the one knight that isn't holding Akira down raises his sword and Akira hears himself scream

and

everything goes a little         **sideways**         for a second.

* * *

It hurts.

It burns, it tears, it _hurts_ , but Akira takes all that hurt and fire and fury, and remembers his own confused helplessness that evening months back and says to himself, _not this time._  He forces all that raw energy into a shape, and the shape gives itself a name, and that name is _Arsene._  It burns like a curse on Akira's tongue.

He likes it.

They tear through the guards like wet paper, and leave Kamoshida cowering and Akira had never felt so good in his life. He feels **powerful** , and he’s certain that nothing can stand before him at this moment, and if he wanted to, he could raise a hand and Kamoshida wouldn’t trouble him any longer. And judging from the fear in Kamoshida’s eyes, he knows too. All it would take is a half-thought, and—

Out of the corner of his eyes, Akira catches a flash of yellow.

Shit, he’d forgotten that someone else was in here with him. Sakamoto is lying facedown on the floor. Unconscious, probably. They need to get out of here as soon as possible. Akira grabs him by the waist and loops his hand over a shoulder and gets the hell out of dodge.

He takes a second to steal the keys and lock Kamoshida in his own cell though. Fuck that guy, seriously.

* * *

Adrenaline finally fading, Akira comes to a stop. Sakamoto's pretty heavy. Akira turns to face him as he asks, "Hey, Sakamoto, right? Can you stand—"

And he stops, and his heart stops, because Sakamoto’s head shouldn't be—

Akira lets go of the—

Of the—

It hits the ground with a wet thud. For a second, Akira thinks the head might roll away entirely, but it's still connected by a— by a (fuck stop looking at it, stop _looking_ ), so it just kinda wobbles for a second before coming to a rest.

Sakamoto's head faces Akira accusingly. The rest of his body splayed out on the ground, with limbs at odd angles where Akira had dropped it like a child's doll.

Akira tastes copper and bile in the air. There's blood all over his vest (since when did he have a vest?), he's soaked in it, how the hell had he missed the smell?

Did he just subconsciously think that Sakamoto was the kind of person who smelled like blood or something?

That’s stupid. That’s such a stupid thought, why the hell did Akira even— holy shit, was is wrong with him, what the fuck? There’s a dead person in front of him and he’s making snide internal commentary about the _smell?_

This was so messed up, no no no no no this was just— just a dream, just a nightmare.

(Just like everything leading up to this point was a nightmare, huh?)

Akira giggles, hysterically. Laughs so hard he's crying and he goes to wipe the tears off his face. Bad move. Blood on Akira's hands, but he didn't know. Couldn't tell it apart from the red of his gloves.

Red gloves like blood and he can't stand the sight of them, and as soon as Akira thinks this, they goes away. All of it. The long coat he didn't notice, the mask he didn't notice, all of it goes up in blue fire like a gas stove flame.

The gloves dissolve into blue fire, but the blood doesn’t. That other student's blood is still red on Akira's hands, his uniform. It all blended in before. It doesn't now. There's blood everywhere and Akira _can't hide_ from it.

Sakamoto's body doesn't go away. Empty eyes still stare at him.

There's yelling in the distance. Guards are coming. Akira can't bring himself to move. Can't bring himself to _not_ look, even though it makes him sick to his stomach.

He'd been crying when he died. His face is still twisted in agony and fear. There are tear tracks down his face, his face that Akira's trying not to look at too hard because if he looks at his face then he'll see his neck out of the corner of his vision and if Akira looks at Sakamoto's neck then all he can see is that awful, gaping hole going _right through—_

Akira kneels down by the little stream running through the middle of the dungeon and retches. He can’t—

Sakamoto didn't— hadn’t even known Akira's name. He'd tried to save Akira twice over, and what did he get in return? Akira couldn't even repay the favor once. Too late, too late, always a little too. Damn. **LATE**.

Guards getting closer. Akira reluctantly wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, and stands back up. He won’t be caught here. Sakamoto died to save him, and he can’t let it go to waste. He won’t die here too.

Someone has to live with the knowledge of what happened.

Akira turns away from the body and hesitates. Leans back down next to it and looks away as he gently closes Sakamoto’s eyes.

Akira swallows. “I’m sorry. This is—”

Can’t do anything else.

Sorry.

Akira gets up and runs away.

* * *

Ryuji Sakamoto’s body lies there on the ground until one of the guards comes across it, in its search for intruders.

It is carelessly kicked into the stream.

Nobody sees it again.


End file.
